Allens adopts a Rare approach to grad recruitment

Allens has announced it will be the first Australian business to introduce the Rare Contextual Recruitment System (CRS) to its graduate recruitment process to further increase diversity in its workforce.

Rare's CRS is a unique tool that enables businesses to view a candidate in context by offering a more complete picture of the candidate's background including considerations such as socio-economic background, education and experience.

'Graduate recruitment is highly competitive and having a sophisticated tool that allows our recruitment teams to see candidates on a level playing field will help ensure Allens continues to recruit the brightest and most promising law graduates,' said Miriam Stiel, Partner responsible for graduate recruitment at Allens in Sydney.

Rare's CRS was launched in the United Kingdom in 2015 and Allens' alliance partner Linklaters was one of the first UK firms to introduce Rare to its graduate recruitment program.

Raphael Mokades, Managing Director of Rare, said the Australian professional services market was an ideal fit for the CRS.

'The CRS was developed in the United Kingdom after two years of intense research and close collaboration with world-class universities and elite global employers. It is inspired by Big Data processes and the selection techniques that leading universities use to make differential offers to students based on "contextual data".

'We have partnered with Allens in order to adapt the CRS for Australia, using local data and research. While blind CV assessment has operated in this market for some time, the CRS brings an additional layer to candidate assessment, giving businesses another lens through which to view applicants and identify high performers.'

Raphael said that increasing workforce diversity is a win-win for both graduates and business.

'The CRS has a positive impact on firm culture and performance, identifying individuals with high levels of resilience and motivation and with diverse experiences and insights. At the same time, it highlights outstanding graduates who may not have been identified using traditional screening methods but have a lot to offer an employer.

'For a top-tier firm like Allens, selecting the best talent from diverse backgrounds is important in a competitive market. The CRS builds on the other elements of our selection process, including work experience, extra-curricular activities, teamwork, leadership, grades, psychometric testing and personal presentation and interview. Ensuring that we hire graduates who reflect the full diversity of Australian society and our clients' businesses is key,' Miriam said.

Following its launch with Allens, Rare will be actively marketing the tool across the professional services sector, aiming to build on its British success where 27 firms are already integrating the CRS into their graduate recruitment.

'The CRS is a way to screen in candidates rather than screen them out. It identifies their performance in the face of educational or economic disadvantage, putting them on a more equal footing against students who have not faced these obstacles.

'Early data shows that the tool is working successfully with analysis showing that disadvantaged students are 50 per cent more likely to get hired as a result of firms using the CRS. Such results really resonate with organisations like Allens who are focused on building diversity and social inclusion into their businesses,' Raphael said.

About Rare

Founded in 2005, ‎Rare is a multi-award winning graduate recruitment company that aims to help top employers recruit the very best people from all backgrounds. Based in London, Rare works with many of the most prestigious employers in the world, including Goldman Sachs, Google, J.P. Morgan and the entire Magic Circle of UK law firms. Rare's groundbreaking CRS was launched in October 2015, is already in use by more than 20 employers, and has seen more than 50,000 applications pass through the system in that time. The CRS won Recruiter magazine's Innovation in Recruitment Award 2016.

About the Contextual Recruitment System

The Rare Contextual Recruitment System Australia (CRS Australia) allows recruiters, for the first time, to understand the context in which a candidate's experiences have been gained. The result of three years of intense research and close collaboration with world-class universities and elite global employers, the CRS has been described as 'revolutionary'. CRS Australia works by combining publicly available information with candidates' responses asked as part of their application process. This is combined with information from two databases – the first contains bespoke information on more than 2000 high schools nationally; the second contains 2482 residential postcodes. The result delivers two outputs to graduate employers: one a measure of disadvantage and the other a measure of performance.

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